The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for providing digital or analog content, such as audio or video, with copy protection data embedded therein.
The ability to transmit copyrighted, namely entertainment content, directly to a typical consumer is increasing rapidly. This is especially true using the Internet, pay-per-view or pay-per-listen systems for cable television networks, and other means.
This increased ability brings with it a number of advantages to reaching the consumer. For example, the consumer may sample the content (e.g., audio or video) while on-line, and purchase the content at any time of the day. However, one clear disadvantage of such systems is that the operator provides each consumer with a high quality (typically digital) master copy of the content. Under most circumstances, this is only a matter of providing high quality entertainment to the consumer. Unfortunately, however, for the unscrupulous consumer (e.g., pirate), this provides a means to generate illegal copies of content with little effort.
Of particular issue is the potential for unauthorized copying and widespread distribution of content, e.g., via a computer network such as the Internet. Traditional unauthorized dubbing and distribution of multiple copies of storage media, such as compact disc, digital video disc, or magnetic tape, is also a problem. In any case, it would be desirable to include information on a copy that is initially transmitted to a consumer that designates that specific copy as belonging to a particular recipient.
Letting the intended recipient know that this embedded information exists may help deter a potential pirate from making illegal use of the content. It will also allow enforcement agencies to track the source of many copies.
Even with this new found capability, the function must be economically practical. That is, a marking solution that costs more than the resultant savings from piracy is not practical. On the other hand, if a low cost solution is available, then security can be gained, and a substantial alleviation of the problem can be realized.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a system for marking content in a very cost effective manner.
There are many techniques that have been proposed to embedded information into content. Each has advantages and disadvantages, but the common aspect of each is that some computation is required. Processing hardware must be adequate to perform the necessary computations quickly enough. If the hardware is not fast enough, e.g., in responding to a user's request to download data from a network, an undesirable latency in delivery time may result. Additionally, potential restrictions in overall throughput of the transmission system may result, thereby limiting the number of users that can download data at the same time or access the network. Moreover, it may not be possible or economically feasible for the legitimate on-line distributor to obtain faster hardware.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a system which reduces the real-time computational requirements for embedding copy protect data into digital or analog content (e.g., audio, video, computer games, information services such a stock prices and weather data, on-line shopping or e-commerce data, etc.).
It would be desirable to provide a system for pre-processing a select number of copies of the same content, and then dynamically choosing from these pre-processed copies in order to create a properly encoded composite signal which is suitable, e.g., for downloading by a user.
The system should provide the capability to distribute the pre-processed content to multiple users at the same time, where the encoded composite signal is generated at the user's location according to an ID value provided to the user.
It would be desirable to provide multiple layers of data embedding.
It would be desirable to provide binary or multi-level, non-binary data embedding.
It would be desirable to provide a technique for smoothly transitioning between two data streams.
It would be desirable to provide an on-line distribution scheme which reduces delivery delays and improves network transmission throughput.
It would be desirable to enable the content to be processed on an off-line basis, e.g., by an on-line distributor, using available hardware.
The system should be suitable for off-line distribution schemes as well, e.g., where the content is provided to the user in person, via mail, and the like. In this case, the content may be stored on a compact disc (CD), digital video disc (DVD), computer floppy disk or the like.
The present invention provides a system having the above and other advantages.